Shop in Europe and Sell Your Gold

What Does StarCraft2 Brought On The Table

It's been awhile since I played a PC game that requires more than few hours job. If not mistaken, my last was Diablo2. Emm, that's like what, 10 years ago?

I'm excited few weeks back when knowing sc2 is going to be released. Colleagues of mine went frenzy about this, and the next days most of their MSN were tagged with sc2related status post. And for me, I don't have luxury of spare time to make up with it.

WTH.




Falling sick. Literally.

White, Orange, Black, Red and White. I wonder where's the little blue?



So the enlightment of sc2 and physical fatigue added up and glued me nicely on my couch.

Flashback. Year 2010.

Crappy year, I'd concluded.




Peanut sized pay increment, groundnut scaled bonus better-than-nothing ang pau, worse-than-expected pink form programme, tighther-than-ever working time, greater but shallower learning landscape, lousy salary and deteriorating health. I can list more, but I guess that's enough.

A phrase crossed my mind. Brain Drain. You can't beat it, You join it.

Yawl.


Time to step back. Time to let go.
Time to ignore. Time to have some fun.
Time to sleep.

Yawl.

XBRL for Dummies

After I fiddled my time with skimping through specification of XBRL 2.1, XBRL Dimensions 1.0 and XLink 1.1, I decided to get untechnical for a glimpse. Here you go, XBRL for Dummies, written by Charles Hoffman aka Father of XBRL and Liv Watson, one of the founders of XBRL.

400+ damned pages albeit pretty light materials, it took me few days to finish the reading. Although the depth is shallow since the book is for Dummies, it provides quite delicate coverage of XBRL regime with pointers to case studies, reference materials, state of the art landscape of products and services and some enlightments of how to make value out from XBRL. It's definitely one of the up-to-date introductory literature you just can't miss.

Facebook Deactivation

I'd posted up a status update in my Facebook account like few weeks back, saying that my will to stop using its services and not many people seem to believe it. And Ta Da, I deactivated my account yesterday. As a matter of fact, I can't find a link called Delete My Account, so I just settled down with Deactivation. Googled and found that you can actually delete your account but only through a relatively lengthy procedure. Nevermind, deactivation it is.

Face swelling finally subsided and I'm taking some "hard" food today. Can you imagine 2-3 days intakes of food limited to stuffs like mashed potatoes, plain congee, milk and ice creams (no complains on this!)? Cravings are crawling around.

It DO costs you to mess with Wisdom!

O ya, when I read a paper about how XBRL is being analyzed from a postsocial approach and as a socio-technical object, Facebook crossed my mind. I'm curious whether there's any similar study on FB. Maybe yes, but no time for me to look further.

Essentials of XBRL

While my recuperation from Wisdom extraction is in progress, I managed to finish the reading of this book during the dull weekend. Pains still intact though.

This book is targeted for the audience from the group of C-level, hence you can imagine how above-50,000-feets the materials can be. Nonetheless, it does provide a very important perspective on how XBRL can portrait itself as a valuable corporate asset and not just another technology.

It is only 200+ pages and with a lot of spaces in between the lines for easy sighting of old folks. Lolx.

Anyway, the book is focused on elaborating the evolutionary power of XBRL in the accounting field, particularly how it will transform accounting firms and corporate accounting department. However, I guess it would be more valuable if it can includes more emphasis on other stakeholders such as regulators and software vendors and not just a breeze on them.

Moving forward.

My Naked Wisdom, Literally

Wisdom was troubling me occasionally with residuals and inflammations and this got on my nerves recently when I can't help myself but uncontrollably flirting with its' surroundings with my tongue to calm the irritations.

DMDL!

Went to dentist that did my root canal few weeks back and taught Wisdom a lesson.

Before the extraction:



See how Wisdom collided with its' neighbour?

After the extraction (Pic at the top right):



The process took around 30 - 45 minutes with drillings, crackings and hackings sound. At one point in time, I felt like my jaw bones were shattered into pieces.


Show time. I present to you my naked Wisdom in blood (R-rated):



Post-op gonna be a PITA experience, hope no dry socket forms.

DMDL, Die Mah Die Lo
PITA, Pain In The Ass

The Telco Churn Management Hand Book By Rob Mattison

I've finished the reading of this book as part of the preparation works for one incoming POC exercise. Not a hefty one, just a near 400 pages traverse of churn related matter in telecommunications industry. It did inspired me about some direction about how to better concoct an arsenal of stuffs to tackle churn. The book is pretty high level in the sense that besides the strategic direction and some tactical means of handling churn, it doesn't really craft down any specific implementation models which directly adaptable. It is inspiring yet you will crack your head yourself to think about the how-to.

Read it here

Time is running out and I got to do more knowledge churning.. literally!

Kid me Not

Airline didn’t pay dividends before as it wanted to build up cash

SEPANG: AirAsia Bhd is now in a much better position to consider paying dividends to its shareholders after solving some issues within the group, said group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes.

“Shareholders did ask about dividend payment at the meeting just now.

“Having solved the uncertainty issues, we are now at the stage where the board will actively consider dividend payment,” he said yesterday after AirAsia’s AGM.

However, he did not explain further the uncertainty issues.

Fernandes did not say when dividend payment might happen but added that the group had made the right decision of not paying dividends up to this point because it wanted to build up its cash.

“We want to build up our cash as we want to grow the airline to be far bigger than any other competitor,” he said.


AirAsia does not have a dividend policy since it was listed in 2004 and if the payout happened, this would be the first time shareholders are receiving dividends.

He added that the group’s cash balance was approaching RM1bil and its business should grow from strength to strength from now on.

For that, he believed AirAsia’s net gearing would continue to go down from the current 2.26 times.

Fernandes also said the airline would fly to the Maldives in October and planned to build a hotel there.

SOA BIAN SOA BIAN

I've attended a presentation by an architect from a well known banking vendor just now. It was about adoption of SOA thingy into new product development. I gotta admit that I'm not at all convinced how by adopting SOA in application development can entice direct buying interest of BUSINESS decision makers, other than having the nice-to-have SOA enabled logo there and appease the techno-geek never-ending appetite of playing with state-of-the-art toys. Of course, my words might be too strong here but nonetheless my point is made:

SOA makes no value to a business if you can't justify its business values.

Hardcore proponents of SOA will probably start to shout at me, I guess. :p

"It enhances business agility"
"It improves time-to-market for new products"
"It helps to make the IT alignment to business needs"
"It embraces changes"
.... many mores COMMON praises of why you should have SOA in your complex environment.

I'd agreed with all the benefits of SOA, sincerely. Most importantly I strongly seconded that SOA indeed provides a very scalable and agile platform for software product development. As a matter of fact, it shares similar qualities with methodologies such as XP, MDA, Agile, albeit at a level of abstraction higher up.

"Most businesses are not being pressured enough by its environments to move to think about SOA"

"My business generates enough shareholder value that guarantees my big fat bonus and decent dividend payout, why I bother to take this risk?"

"SOA is not for the faint-of-heart!"

Interestingly, after I typed the phrase above, I did a search in Google and found this article that coincided with my opinion. Click here to read

One of the statement made by the architect that I couldn't disagree more was the "fact" that adopting SOA doesn't change the way business is conducted.

The value maximization of SOA approach shall be realized if and only if the business leverages on it to make the business process more agile, to alleviate process bottleneck due to IT inagility and to flexibly infuse process innovation. If you are an avid reader, you realized that I mentioned the word Process three times. :p
I just want to stress how important to view the impacts of SOA from the perspective of how it could change business processes and perhaps the entire business model of the company.

"80/20 should be 80% about BPM, 20% for the rest. Not the other way around."

Here is a hilarious article you should read about. Click here to read

I need to re-emphasize here: For all intents and purposes, SOA development approach is the best option we have for software development now, but it will not be cheap and easy to adopt. Higher setup cost and steeper learning curves are just few of many caveats that warrant a big post sign "BEWARE". High risk high return?

Let's ask ourselves. If you are the CTO/CIO in a complex organization with many existing IT assets such as a large bank, how high the ranking will it be for SOA project(s) in your priority list. IMHO, it will be way too low that you might just miss it. Why? IT'S TOO F**KING TECHNICAL and your boss is shouting for corporate capability such as proactive customer acquisition management or straight-through trading thingy.

"Don't be so shortsighted"

In fact, I'm not. I've been through enough tech fads and unplesant reality to draw my conclusion and I think further enough to cover more than just the main success scenario.

The rule of thumb is anything that tries to improve an organization at the scale of enterprise wide requires enterprise wide commitments. To name a few examples:

Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW)
Enterprise Churn Management
"SOA"!
...

Any of the above is easy target for cruel reality check. I've seen EDW effort that turned out to be a huge isolated data mart used by few departments and eventually serves to be a source system to another EDW effort that subsequently failed too. Given this wonderful history of fad-goes-bust cycle, it could be a premonition for SOA initiatives.

I strongly suggest for any SOA project to deliver quick win results to convince a larger scale of commitments into its' accomplishments.

Think Business Always!
It's all about bottomline, revenue, cost and growth.

Pointed application, semantic stuffs? Emmm... KIV.
BIAN, metamodel, service landscape? Emmm... Still evolving.

Only 1 in 5 SOA Projects Actually Succeed

State of SOA Survey 2010

Only with all the critical success factors met, i.e. top management commitments of enterprise adoption and enforcement, standards-based and tools-based SOA infrastructures and clear-crispy SOA policy, procedures and best practices, we should be able to increase the likelihood of delivering an envious successful SOA project (Enterprise wide!), else it will be just another SILO, a pricey one.

A Smorgasbord of Amorphous Team

There's a series of interesting trials conducted recently pertaining to the idea of utilizing project-based knowledge workers in contributing to the completion of non-project based deliverables. The key motivation to this exercise is to discover whether the quality of these deliverables will improve and to gauge level of cooperations and teamworks in doing so. Chaos Theory actually popped out in my mind when I imagined about how this exercise will turn out. Specifically, take developing tender proposal as our example to shed some lights about this approach.

First, a RFP comes in. A variety of people are gathered to build response to this RFP including project manager, sales manager, functional fella and technical folks. These guys are from different project teams where some in R&D stage and others in project deployment or support phases. Then, assuming the existence of a proposal template and this template serves as the basis for segregating the sections out to different groups of people. Sound pretty straightforward I presumed? Lastly, works from these groups are collected and conciliated into a final proposal. Voila, we manage to submit before the deadline.

So? What's the big deal of meeting the submission date when the whole idea of submission is not about winning the deal. The words are pretty strong here but the truth is not all the participants have the same common objectives.

Let's do a quick analysis in this arrangement of structure. A direct KPI perspective reveals the obvious fact that these people are not working coherently, might even in contradicting interests. A fictional mindset of these people illustrated below:

Sales Manager - More Sales = More $$
Project Manager - More successful tenders = More works = Perhaps more $$
Functional experts - Project Performance is more important. Who's cares about tender?
Technical experts - What? Tender? Let me write some codes please.

The thing is if the person responsible to do some works don't just the sense of "If it failed, I will be screwed" accountability, you can just save your crossing-finger time. You are wasting them.

Of course, factors such as luck/randomness, weak competitions, pre-arranged deals and existence of heroism still might contribute to the chance of winning the tender, but SERIOUSLY, Are you going to let your corporation to solely rely on these?

Ya, you might argue that a truly professional would do whatever they are being assigned to in any best winning ways possible. Well, you might be right that such environments do exist but it might turn out to be a heroism-centric pit due to the frustration of these professionals dealing with "not-so-professional" and "not-professional" and deciding to turn over to others.

Tender is a crucial piece for getting more deals, Truly Qualified Lead per se.

Can you really afford to do such a trial-and-error experiment?
Not for me.

Do participants get motivated?
Yes and No, depends on your KPI.

Does the outcome have a shot in winning the project?
Possible, but hard to recur.

How to improve on this arrangement?
Incentive and Penalty. Carrot-and-Stick.

Do I recommend this arrangement?
No. A Tender Department is more suitable for larger organization.

A less wonderful life for bankers - Jimmy Stewart is Dead

A less wonderful life for bankers
Review by Martin Sandbu



Jimmy Stewart is Dead
By Laurence Kotlikoff
Wiley ($27.95)


A reader of Jimmy Stewart is Dead could be forgiven for thinking that its author is an angry young man. The book describes the financial crisis in prose of populist wrath that would not be out of place in the “tea party” movement. It parades a procession of villains, from deposed Wall Street titans to Uncle Sam himself, and sends them packing in verbal tar and feathers.

In fact, the author is Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University professor whose research record extends to such rarefied topics as Ricardian non-equivalence in strategic altruism. But here his tone is more the agitator’s than the academic’s as he explains “in plain English and simple terms the big con underlying the big game”.

Hardly any part of finance escapes Kotlikoff’s whip. Executive compensation, subprime mortgages, derivatives, credit rating, bail-outs, even deposit insurance are so many forms of theft or snake oil, which only deliver so long as people believe they can. The basic problem, he says, is “multiple equilibria”: economies shift from growth to paralysis depending on whether consumers and investors expect things to hum along nicely or fear a collapse.

This is what almost kills the Bailey Building and Loan Association in It’s a Wonderful Life, the feelgood film starring James Stewart as an honest banker. Faced with a run on his bank, Stewart’s character educates shocked savers in the realities of fractional reserve banking: deposits are not held in a vault but recycled in loans to the community. If enough depositors worry about a bank’s safety, they cause the very failure they fear by demanding more than it has at hand.

Kotlikoff sees the current crisis as such a flip from good to bad expectations. In the film, Stewart regains the trust of the townspeople, who avert disaster by putting their money back in. But in our world, faith cannot be restored: Jimmy Stewart – or the kind of finance he represents – is dead.

If you cannot have trust, it helps to know that what you see is what you get. Kotlikoff has a simple and radical substitute for trust. “Limited purpose banking” would turn every financial product into a mutual fund and every limited-liability financial institution into a mutual fund provider.

Under LPB, mortgage lending, for example, would be done through “mortgage mutual funds” whose managers would pick loans to invest in. Mortgage applicants would provide the information they do today, and different funds could bid for their custom. The lenders would be investors owning shares in the mutual funds. At no point would any bank actually hold the mortgage on its books.

Indeed, banks would not hold anything on their books at all except the modest assets needed to manage a fund – computers and offices – and the matching equity. They would not be allowed to borrow and certainly not to trade with borrowed funds.

In LPB “cash mutual funds”, fully backed by cash, take the place of deposits. If this sounds like narrow banking, it is because it is – but LPB extends the principle to all of finance. Insurance and derivatives are replaced by funds issuing different shares, whose claims on the funds’ holdings depend on how specified events turn out. Crucially, this means all contingent liabilities are fully backed by capita!l.

Kotlikoff also wants independent custodians and a single agency verifying and publishing details on every investment: one would be able to look at each mortgage a fund holds before choosing to invest in it.

LPB would in one sense change a lot; in another, very little. Virtually every financial product in use today could be recreated as a mutual fund. But with all warts and blemishes exposed and no doubt that end-investors carry the losses, some would be priced out of existence. No bad thing with value destroyers presently masquerading as triple-A – but the worry is that LPB would take us from too much credit to too little.

“Financial life will be . . . smoother”, writes Kotlikoff, “because LPB will [reduce] the risk of fraud and systemic collapse.” Perhaps, but risks remain. It would be hard to stop non-financials from engaging in financial activities. Nor are mutual funds immune to runs: when a money market fund broke the buck in 2008, the US government rushed in with a backstop. But one big source of panic disappears under LPB. Banning leverage in financial intermediation makes it impossible for intermediation itself to collapse if a leveraged bubble bursts.

LPB may not be the answer, but it is a serious attempt to seek solutions at the required scale. Kotlikoff does us a great service by pointing out that only radical reform can fix finance. For that reason alone the ideas in this book deserve to be taken seriously.

Earth Hour 2010

Eddy said: Not only I'm an atheist and a no-nonsense pragmatist who worship frugality and modern economics, I strongly disbelieve about the effectiveness and efficiency of "saving-the-world/-green/-climate" through decentralized and consumer based non-profit compaigns. So, just like you folks who think that these campaigns are contributing to the so called awareness creation and standstill with this dogma, I shall hold up with my disobedience and say "No" to this non-sense!


Earth Hour: TNB Encourages Prudent Energy Usage

TNB's comments about Earth Hour 2009.

Earth Hour on March 27 Sends the Wrong Message

Earth Hour 'will not cut carbon emissions'

Unite in darkness with the world for one hour

Activities flare up as Earth Hour 2010 comes closer

Breakfast, The Happy Meal

By Sakina Mohamed

KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 (Bernama) -- Want to know the secret to a smarter, happier and slimmer you? Eat breakfast!

Many people do not realise this, but eating the first meal of the day is vital in helping them think, feel and even look better. It also sets the tone for the rest of the day.

"Recent studies indicate that people who eat breakfast regularly enjoy a more positive attitude, and they are slimmer and have better mental performance," says Nestle Malaysia's Nutritionist Cher Siew Wei to Bernama.

This is because our body uses sugar, or glucose, in the blood for energy. When we wake up, our blood sugar level is low because we've been fasting overnight. So, eating a nutritious and balanced breakfast helps to provide enough energy to kick-start the day.

BREASFAST BRINGS POSITIVE IMPACT

Cher says starting the day with a nutritious balanced breakfast has a positive impact on alertness, concentration and helps students and employees establish a positive attitude towards studies or work.

"This is not surprising, given breakfast, especially one that is rich in complex carbohydrates such wholemeal bread, whole grain cereal drinks and whole grain breakfast cereals, boost brain glucose levels," she says.

Furthermore, micronutrients such as B vitamins are commonly added to whole grain cereal drinks and breakfast cereals. These vitamins encourage production of brain chemicals like serotonin, which send "feel good" messages that ultimately make you happier throughout the day.

In contrast, those who skip breakfast may find themselves moody and irritable throughout the day.

EATING TO LOSE THE KILOS

Eating to lose weight may be a paradoxical concept to some. But studies have proven time and again that eating breakfast helps curb your appetite for the rest of the day and revs up your metabolism. These will undoubtedly help you shed the kilos.

Cher says a revved up metabolism helps to burn the maximum number of calories to fuel your activities.

Are you a carb-addict trying to lose weight? Breakfast is the best time to eat carbohydrates since you will have the rest of the day to burn them off and use them as fuel to keep your body and your brain working. Just be sure to opt for whole grains with lots of fiber.

It is an easy, guilt-free way to sneak in some carbohydrates into your day without jeapordising your slimming efforts.

BREAKFAST SKIPPERS AT THE LOSING END

But that is not all. Have you noticed how some people tend to have "cravings" and load up on lunch because they have missed breakfast? Eating breakfast may correct this as it curbs the hunger seen later in the day, which usually results in overeating.

Conversely, those who skipped breakfast may trick their bodies into believing that it is starving, and thus cause the body to go into "survival mode" and start storing fat. This makes it easier to gain weight.

Cher says breakfast skippers also tend to choose higher-calorie foods at the next meal. In the long term, this may lead to the development of chronic health issues.

"Many studies have shown the association between breakfast consumption and weight management. The Journal of Obesity Research in 2002 reported that of the 3000 volunteers studied in the United States, 78 percent who successfully lost excess body weight and then maintained their weight ate breakfast every day of the week.

"This result suggested that eating breakfast on a regular basis is one of the common behaviours to maintaining weight loss," she says.

In addition to that, a study by the University of Texas, El Paso in U.S. also shows that eating breakfast can increase the output of leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite.

BUT I HAVE NO APPETITE IN THE MORNINGS

So breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day but many people still claim that they could never eat breakfast, although they know how important it is.

The Malaysian Adults Nutrition Survey (2003) showed that 1 out of 10 Malaysian adults skipped breakfast.

A joint research conducted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Nestle on the Nutritional Status and Dietary Habits of Primary School Children in Malaysia (2007-2008) revealed that 1 out of 3 Malaysian primary school children leaves home for school with empty stomach.

The reason? Of the 11,371 primary school children surveyed, 45 per cent said they missed breakfast because they had "no time", 22.2 percent cited "not hungry" as their reason while 17.6 percent said they had no appetite.

"The "no appetite" or "no time" for breakfast excuse is similar to the "I've got no time for exercise" excuse," says Cher.

"If you want to re-establish the breakfast-eating habit, but "no appetite" is the obstacle, start with something small and easy to prepare, and concentrate first on making it part of the morning routine."

Parents can buy buns and leave it on the table for the kids or themselves to grab in the morning, she says.

For those unable to eat something solid in the morning, Cher suggests them to start the habit by having a cup of hot drink like milk, Milo, or even a cereal drink.

"The fibre content in cereal drinks can keep you full for some time. It may not be as heavy as a full meal, but something is better than nothing."

SPONSOR BREAKFAST TO BOOST PERFORMANCE

The 2007-2008 Nutritional Status and Dietary Habits of Primary School Children in Malaysia survey revealed that 10.6 percent of the children said they skipped breakfast because there was no food available.

Lack of food for energy in the morning may not only adversely affect a child's learning and performance in school, but studies show that it can also cause behavioural problems among them.

Similarly, employees'performance and productivity in the workplace will also be affected if they missed breakfast.

Therefore, Cher points out that it would be a good idea for schools or workplaces to sponsor simple, nutritious breakfast.

"This can be just a sachet of instant cereal drink, a bun, a cup of yogurt or a sandwich. Even a glass of milk will help," she says.

BUT I WOKE UP TOO LATE..

Never too late for breakfast! Breakfast is defined as the first meal of your day, which you should have within an hour of waking up.

"So even if you wake close to lunch time, eat something. It's still considered breakfast," says Cher.

Some of us may opt to wait for lunch time and go for "brunch". Cher advises against this.

"You cannot compensate breakfast by eating a bit more at lunch, because it doesn't work that way. This can be dangerous to your figure and health," she says.

VARIETY AND MODERATION IS KEY

Although eating breakfast is encouraged, some breakfasts may tip the scales the other way.

Cher says popular Malaysian breakfasts like nasi lemak and roti canai can be dangerous to the health if taken regularly.

"It is okay to have nasi lemak occasionally. But make sure you take the basic nasi lemak, and avoid adding on rendang meat, fried chicken or other fat-laden condiments," she advises.

Cher also advises people to take different types of food for breakfast so that they may benefit from different types of nutrients.

For those rushing in the early mornings, she recommends taking with them a muesli bar, a fruit or a wholegrain bun. They can also opt for dairy products like cheese and yogurt or choose wholewheat crackers and biscuits.

-- BERNAMA

PM: First stage of NEM out on March 30

Eddy said: Let's wait and see.




By MAZWIN NIK ANIS
mazwin@thestar.com.my

PUTRAJAYA: The first stage of the highly-anticipated New Economic Model (NEM) will be unveiled on March 30, quashing speculation that there is a delay in its launch.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said announcements on the matter would be made in two stages, with the second stage to be revealed during the tabling of the 10th Malaysia Plan.

“We want to engage all stakeholders,” he told reporters after meeting with members of the Special Taskforce to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) yesterday.

Asked on concerns raised by certain quarters over the NEM, particularly over bumiputra issues, Najib declined to comment, saying that it was too early for him to elaborate on the matter.

“I don’t want to jump the gun. I don’t want to address the New Economic Model. Otherwise I will be speaking prematurely and letting the cat out of the bag,” he said.

The Malay Consultative Council recently expressed its concern and urged the Government to ensure the proposed NEM was within the framework of Article 153 of the Constitution in preserving the rights of the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

On another matter, the Prime

> TURN TO PAGE 2

Minister said the Cabinet had given the green light to the International Trade and Industry Ministry to study the possibility of Malaysia entering the US-initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), adding that the ministry had embarked on a deep and comprehensive study to look into the matter.

“The Cabinet will make its decision if the study by MITI shows that (TPP) benefits Malaysia,” he said.

Najib said the United States had informed the Government that it had put plans for a Free Trade Agreement on the backburner, adding that the current administration was more keen to work on multilateral trade initiatives.

The current TPP members are Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, and Brunei. The members are also part of the much larger 21-member economies under Apec.

Najib said the Government would not take too much time to decide whether it would want to be part of TPP, adding that he might be able to give some indication on the matter to US President Barack Obama if “a bilateral meeting is on the cards” when he visits the US next month.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to attend the World Nuclear Conference to be held in Washington on April 12 and 13.

Asked if this was an indication that he would be going to the White House, the Prime Minister declined to confirm, adding that 45 leaders were expected to attend and “if there is one (bilateral meeting), it will be held in the margin.”

Declare minimum wage, union urges GLCs

Eddy said: Nope, it's not going to happen, Even it does, more damages shall be than ensuring economic progress.




The Malaysian Airline System Employees Union (MASEU) has urged all government linked companies (GLCs) to publicly declare their minimum wage.

The union said the GLCs should be more transparent and fully comply with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) in managing their staff.

"The GLCs are currently competing against each other in declaring their huge profits publicly but at the same time, exploiting and harassing local workers," it said in a statement here today.

MASEU suggested Malaysia should have a statutory minimum wage to safeguard workers in the country.



"In the absence of a statutory minimum wage, employers often insist that it must be determined by market forces, which in several cases, falls below the poverty line of income," MASEU noted. -- Bernama

Improvise and Impromptu

Googol -> 1 x power(10,100) or 1 followed by 100 zeroes

Boisterous -> ... rough and noisy; noisily jolly or rowdy; clamorous; unrestrained: the sound of boisterous laughter. 2. (of waves, weather, wind, etc.) rough and stormy....



It is both interesting and enlightening if we try to analyze corporate related matters using an economics context.

Most organizations adopt a team coordination method of organizing economic activities within the firm, though more recently the trend of moving towards BPO, KPO, LPO and other sorts of process outsourcing bring us some sights that structure, size and scope of a firm may hinders healthy growth.

A well known problem, the Principal Agent problem must be taken of if a firm is going to work towards maximum efficiency, that is to maximize profits.

The problem is ubiquitous.

Shareholders (Principal)- Board of Directors (Agent)
Board of Directors (Principal) - CEO (Agent)
CEO (Principal) - C level management (Agent)
C Level (Principal) - Senior Management (Agent)
Senior Management (Principal) - Middle Management (Agent)
Middle Management (Principal) - Senior Executive (Agent)
...
...

And the list goes on, depending on the organizational breakdown structure.



Basically, the idea is if you appointed someone to conduct certain duties for you, it is your own self interest that these duties are carry out successfully and your representatives might not have the same self interest as you. Thus, we absolutely positively shall have conflict of interests, though these conflicts might not be so obvious most of the time.

When we have OBS what we effectively try to achieve is to establish chain of commands. Command oriented activity organization requires close monitoring and it is this kind of monitoring that decreases the effectiveness of decision making.

I am not implying that command oriented management style is irrefutably bad. It is very suitable where 1.) Close monitoring is valid, possible and low cost or 2.) The cost of irreversible decisions and actions is unacceptably high.

Armies, production workers, bank tellers, students in exam room and so on can be efficiently controlled using command style.

However what about top management executives, R&D personnels, sales person? Frankly speaking, it's about incentives!

People often misinterpret the statement "maximizing profit". It doesn't mean that the firm shall be able to maximize profit at the expense of human, process and product. We all know (do you?) that it is possible that by spending more you could earn more. That's right!

Let's take an example of human productivity in a firm. Ceteris paribus, employee's non-monetary demand of incentives is elastic and using this knowledge every extra 1,000 dollar spent as non-monetary benefits to employees can turn out to churn more productivity and thus increases the total output, i.e. more man hours and completed projects, which eventually leads to improved profit. If you spend 1,000 bucks and get back 5,000 bucks worth of employee's time, it's a superb deal!

Ok, but remember the assumption here, this only works if the demand is elastic!



And more importantly, the demand curve is sloping downward. The effect of every additional unit of benefit spent on a particular employee shall have less goodness effect than the previous unit. For example, let's say you provide 100 dollar of telephone service allowance to an employee, the incentive effect of providing another 100 dollar of such allowance to the same fella will be so insignificant because 1.) Human loves varieties and choices 2.) The fella will perceive the value of spending the same 100 dollar on let say, meal allowance higher than 100 dollar extra on telephony.

Rule of thumb: The more you have something, the less you value it.

Another obvious example is the effect of 500 dollar increment on a person who earns 1,000 dollar currently and one who earns 5,000 dollar. You see it now?

To amplify the matter, imagine a mid sized firm with 500 employees, how the heck you are going to cater into everyone's need? Simply stated, it doesn't worth the time to microly manage and reward but then you need to ensure the efficiency of the firm. Phew!

The good news is this dilemma faced by firms is just a minuscule version of the one happening in most markets.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
~ Adam Smith

If the same invisible hand can naturally regulate a market, why can't the same principle be used to optimize firm's efficiency?

If every stakeholder have a strong interest in the success of the firm, why not we formalize such an interest and make it a norm, a culture and a driver into the firm.

If the firm's success is measured by the economic profit it earns, then everyone must be measured by this metric explicitly.

Emmm... my initial thought is

(3P) People, Process, Product -> Things to manage
(4P) Professionalism, Performance, Predictability, Profit -> Aspects to manage

For example, Employee A (People) must be reviewed and appraised based on the 4P above.

Professionalism, Performance and Predictability can be aggregated to firm level qualitatively since I haven't know any working quantitative methods for them. But Profit definitely shall be aggregated quantitatively.

My model is Profit determines the total (extra) benefits a person entitled and other aspects decide how much actually they will get. To achieve this end, a proper project and task level accounting is needed and must be enforced firm wide for consistency, comparability and compatibility.

Let's work out an example.




Project: CMMI Internal Implementation
Customer: Internal
Budget: 1 million dollar, 1 year

Imagine the PM worked out a plan with 100 tasks and each task is costing 3 days and 5k. If everything works out according to this plan, the profit shall be 1 million - 500k = 500k (Wow, this seems like overbudgeted, LOLX). Say, 10% of the profit will be distributed as monetary/non-monetary incentives to the staffs, that's 50k (Total entitlement). Of course, some lazy staffs will get less due the results of appraisal based on Professionalism, Performance and Predictability. But the fact is that people know very clear of the benefits of working efficiently, i.e. saves cost thus increases their personal profit.

This game will have the elements of collaboration and competition. People will work together to achieve a coherent goal and compete against each other to maximize the value of the firm's scarce resources. Turnovers and dropouts are occuring because of inefficiency and this is encourageable because it helps to eliminate the inefficiency naturally from the firm. Equilibrum is not far from us...

I think I will stop here today. More to come when improvise again in the future!

Felda Sungai Klah Hotspring a.k.a. Taman Rekreasi Air Panas (TRAP)

I've being to this tourist spot a couple of times, all happened to be just one day trips. As a matter of fact, one whole day is more than enough to enjoy the place, unless you plan to stay and hopefully recharge your spiritual energy by listening to the buzzing of (potentially irritating) night creatures. Count me out.. for now.

Entrance fee is MYR10.00 for adult, cheaper price is available for children, disabled and golden citizens. I'd remembered previously the price was much lower, if not mistaken around MYR4.00 instead. Seems like inflation is infact inevitable.

Some random pics about this place.


Walkway.


Trees and plants.


SPA canopy.


Private pool?


Family pool entrance.




Very hot water, dare to touch?


Map for not losing your direction.



can trust these pointers?


Official information about TRAP:

Absolute and Relative Performance

It is imperative that any performance measurement has to be done relatively among comparable samples.

Let's take a very macro view of this statement, how do we compare economic performance of countries? Malaysia, for example annual GDP growth adjusted by inflation for year 2008 was 4.73% on average and the same measure for year 2009 was
-3.77%. Looking at these numbers by their absolute sense only be able to tell you one-sided of the story, the magnitude of change between contiguous time periods. How do you tell whether 4.73% for year 2008 was actually top performing achievement and its fall to -3.77% was in fact within acceptable normal range? The answer to all these questions are not easily obtainable. To compare and interpret the numbers, we must have data of countries of similar characterics which include developing status, government types, national focuses, comparative advantages, currency power and so on.
Unfortunately (fortunately), this planet only logically partitioned into less than 200 countries (officially according to UN) and this means that the samples that fulfill the suitability criteria can be significantly little.

Performance must be measured in relative term! It makes more sense to state that Malaysia is performing at 95 percentile of all qualified samples or Malaysia is performing 5 percentile better than Thailand.

Applying the same analytical process to evaluate a group of employees or set of business units where each consists of a group of employees, it is not likely that neither employees are all performing nor they are all not performing. Performance might be normally distributed and it implies that most (67%) employees' performance fall between 1 standard deviation from the distribution mean. With more sample points, I do believe that this will be the true population distribution, however with less number of employees in the analysis, we perhaps can observe skewed distributions, positively or negatively. In layman terms, we could observe majority of the employees are performing exceptionally good or worse. Taking a negatively skewed distribution of employees' performance, what will be a suitable compensation system? Should we lucratively compensate exceptionally performing people that only registered themselves near to the distribution mean or severely penalize people far at the left skirt of the graph who obviously fall on the definition of outliers.

No easy answer because it is impossible to have a undisputable and universal performance benchmark on human activity. It is difficult because even such benchmark and measurement methodology exists not everybody will bow down to its results nor agree to the rationale of every measurement.

I guess people management is undeniably distantly far to be an engineering disclipline.

Bank Negara To Formulate A New Blueprint For Financial Sector

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 (Bernama) -- Bank Negara Malaysia is in the process of formulating a new blueprint for the financial sector for the next decade which would ensure the development of a more inclusive financial system.

Disclosing this in her welcoming remarks at the Financial Inclusion Advisers Programme here today, Bank Negara Governor, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said Malaysia would continue to ensure that all segments of society continue to have access to financial services.

While the current global economic slowdown posed a challenge to the financial inclusion agenda, the country's high level of financial inclusion is the result of conscious policies to build a progressive and inclusive financial system, Zeti said.

The financial inclusion measures have seen positive results so far, with the country having among the highest level of deposit and loan accounts in the world.

The text of her speech was released here Monday.

Zeti said the strategies implemented had generated six characteristics of the financial system, firstly a business environment that allowed a diverse range of financial service providers to thrive and compete.

The financial system also includes foreign financial institutions through a series of sequenced liberalisation measures.

Secondly, basic banking products and services have been made available at reasonable costs, and thirdly a diverse set of delivery channels had been introduced to ensure widespread access to financial services.

"The central bank's branching policy has encouraged financial institutions to establish an extensive branch network across the country to ensure widespread physical access to financial services," Zeti said.

Another feature of the system has been the enhancement of financial literacy and protection of consumer rights. Towards this, a Consumer Protection Framework has been developed to enhance the disclosure standards of financial products and services, the various dispute resolution mechanisms and to institute fair practice amongst the financial service providers.

Supporting financial infrastructure to facilitate the operations of financial institutions has been another important feature of the financial system.

In this regard, credit bureaus have been established to enhance access to financing by encouraging borrowers to build credit records, Zeti said.

Finally, recognising the importance of human capital development in the industry, the central bank also established several centres of excellence for learning for the overall financial services sector, including covering the areas of corporate governance, leadership development and Islamic finance.

Meanwhile, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have jointly organised the ongoing Financial Inclusion Advisors (FIA) Programme here.

The five-day programme, beginning today will provide a platform for microfinance practitioners in the region to share their experiences in enhancing financial inclusion with regulators and microfinance practitioners from Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Discussions will focus on recent developments in microfinance in Africa, Malaysia, India and Indonesia, development of agriculture microfinance, micro credit practices and credit risk management.

-- BERNAMA

Lai said to be unlikely to return to Alliance bank

Eddy said: I don't think she will "appears" in ANY banks in near future. Maybe it's time for her to retire with.. well, plenty of "wealth".


By ELAINE ANG

PETALING JAYA: Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd group chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk
Bridget Lai is not expected to return to the bank, sources and analysts said.

“I think I will answer you simply. I do not think it likely that Lai will return,” a source told StarBiz yesterday.

Speculation is rife that Lai, who is currently being investigated in the bank’s internal probe on issues which started with renovation in the property department, would not want to continue on as the bank’s CEO after the investigations are over.


Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd group CEO Datuk Bridget Lai It was reported earlier that Lai had been given seven days by the bank board to answer certain questions as part of the bank’s internal probe.

When contacted, Lai said in an email reply that her main focus now was to clear her name.

“At this moment I do not even want to think about the future because the present is my key focus. Clear my name but to always be cognisant of my responsibility to my shareholders, professional in my conduct, respectful to my board and concern about my shareholders.

“I should be able to respond to my letter soon and hope to give my board a satisfactory answer.

“And by the way, money cannot buy integrity and there is no price to integrity as it is priceless. I am not concerned about compensation and despite the rumours, this is not my key focus,” she said.

An analyst with a local stockbroking firm who declined to be named said she would not be surprised if Lai did not return to the bank as CEO.

“I don’t think she will go back once the issue is over and she clears her name. I would not go back too after having gone through so much trauma,” she said.

Another analyst with a bank-backed stockbroking firm concurred.

“The investigation would most probably result in a less cordial relationship with the board. The relationship will not be as smooth as before. Even if she returns, I don’t think it will be for long as it will only be to hand over to her successor,” the analyst said.

On the effect Lai’s leaving would have on the bank, the analyst said the bank might be affected in the short term as there may be a management reshuffle with a new CEO coming on board thus disrupting the bank’s strategic direction and strategy execution.

“Moreover, the growth momentum for the consumer banking side may slump as Lai has always been strong in this area,” the analyst said.

Nevertheless, another analyst expects Lai to at least complete her contract with the bank.

“I believe she would want a good start and good end to her tenure at Alliance Bank. She has built up the bank to what it is today and she is a responsible person. She would want a smooth transition of power,” she said.

83-640 TS Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring

This test is the first virtual lab based certification exam from Microsoft, therefore Nerdy Eddy must go and try it out. That's reason #1. Reason #2 is the demand for me to acquire the proper overall understanding about Active Directory and its configuration thingy and thus to be able to talk to those nasty IT Administrators, especially those bank customers of ours. You might be a vendor like us and if you're dealing with enough customers with relatively large directory-based network infrastructure, you do understand the fact that without a knowledge of the standard operating procedures and configurations (hardening and stuffs) of IT systems, your project might get into troubles, well "preferably" at the end of the testing phase and the start of migration phase. Surprises such as services suddenly went down, network became inaccessible and some weird blockage of program execution can turn your world upside down and when you found out the root of cause, most of the time it's all about subtle policy settings. Lolx. If you're telling me that all these hassles form the experiences of a seasoned technical person, well, wake up and tell yourself that it is all caused by your incapability, insufficient knowledge, unwillingness to learn formally and unable to read a book from cover to index. LOLX.

About 83-640. It's quite a fun testing experience. The test program started one or more virtual machines for you and ask you to perform a series of tasks within timed duration. I guess the step by step process is not important but the end result. You can do the entire tasks in command prompt if you're well verse in it than GUI based tools. Of course, some tasks must be perform using GUI tools.

For my case, there were so called performance labs, each one must be completd within 65 minutes and consists of roughly 7 to 9 tasks. Nonetheless, my task scopes are quite limited to the use of ntdsutil, dnsmgmt.msc, dsa.msc, domain.msc and schmmgmt. I didn't use compmgmtlauncher.exe at all. No tasks for me that're related to monitoring and ADCS, ADFS, ADLDS, ADRMS.

Then after completed the labs, you need to settle a traditional question-based test (30 questions).

I've passed the test with 933 score, not sure it is a good score or not because this is my first MS certification exposure :p

My preparation materials were:


Que MCTS: 70-640 Exam Cram (As main study material)
Windows 2008 Bible (As ad-hoc reference book)
Microsoft Site and TechNet
Some Windows 2008 VM to play with

I'm not sure I want to proceed now to complete MCITP track, unless my work desires more knowledge on network and more MS environment stuffs.

Bridget Lai said to be head-hunted

Eddy said: Head-hunted in the middle of potential scandal? Beat me up please, I just don't believe this crap. Lolx, what's an extremist huh?


PETALING JAYA: Alliance Bank group CEO Datuk Bridget Lai (pic) is believed to be head-hunted for top positions in banking and finance.

The offers are said to have emerged since last year but Lai’s contract with Alliance had just been approved by Bank Negara for renewal in September; hence, she has not accepted any offer.

When contacted, Lai declined to comment.


Alliance Financial Group Bhd group chief executive officer Datuk Bridget Lai. Industry players said they were not surprised that Lai would be approached by headhunters as the shortage of seasoned bankers in Asia makes someone like her “very bankable.’’

Her 30 years of experience, mostly with Standard Chartered Bank before she took up her current post in 2005, has given her a strong foundation especially in consumer banking which is her forte.

Just two days ago, Lai refuted reports that she had resigned amid a spate of rumours that a senior official of Alliance Bank, who was purportedly on forced leave along with a few others, had offered to resign.

Bloomberg yesterday reported that Alliance Bank also issued a statement that Lai had not resigned and that it conducted investigations as part of its due diligence on corporate governance and board oversight.

Alliance Financial Group Bhd, whose biggest shareholder is Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, said its banking unit is being helmed by head of corporate banking Choo Joon Keong during the absence of its top two executives.

Lai and chief operating officer Shim Kon Teck were on annual leave, Agnes Ong, a spokeswoman for parent company Alliance Financial, said in an e-mailed response to a query. She didn’t say when they might return.